Donald Trump: Waterboarding “Absolutely” Works

Donald Trump tells ABC News’ David Muir he’s “absolutely” convinced waterboarding works and will “keep our country safe” but will defer to his cabinet in deciding whether the United States resumes the practice.

“When ISIS is doing things nobody has ever heard of since medieval times, would I feel strongly about water boarding? As far as I’m concerned we have to fight fire with fire,” Trump tells the ABC News anchor in his first sit-down interview as POTUS, which the network will air in a one-hour special tonight at 10 PM ET.

Trump claimed to have spoken with “people at the highest level of intelligence..within the past 24 hours” of Muir’s interview, “and asked them the question, ‘Does torture work?'”

“The answer was, ‘yes.’,” Trump told Muir.

POTUS said he would defer to his new Secretary of Defense James Mattis, CIA director Mike Pompeo and “my group” on the subject.

“If they don’t want to do that’s fine and if they do what to do I will work within that end….but, do I feel it works? Absolutely.”